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Thread: THE HATEFUL EIGHT (Quentin Tarantino 2015)

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    THE HATEFUL EIGHT (Quentin Tarantino 2015)

    QUENTIN TARANTINO: THE HATEFUL EIGHT (2015)


    KURT RUSSELL, SAMUEL L. JACKSON IN THE HATEFUL EIGHT (SHOWING 2.76:1 FORMAT)

    Agatha Christie Western

    Returning to something of the confinement of Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino's deliciously complicated 8th movie nearly all takes place inside one big cold drafty place, Minnie's Haberdashery [sic], a way station in the Wyoming mountains en route to the town of Red Rock where some travelers hole up to wait out a blizzard. There are a few spectacular snowy landscapes, but for the most part this is a mystery, like Agatha Christie, suspicious characters confined to a room. Old fashioned trappings include chapter divisions, an Intermission, and a splendid score composed by Ennio Morricone. But the action is pared down (sort of) to its essence: the dialogue (is there ever anything else?) -- and the violence. For this is a Western and before it's over, as in any classic shoot-out, most of the characters (and more) will be dead -- though not before horror-movie gore and threatening speeches delivered while in horrible pain. It's 6 or 8 or 12 years after the end of the Civil War and bounty hunters collide with charlatans and knaves during the howling storm. Minnie is nowhere to be found, and a Mexican called Bob (Demian Bichir, the drug lord mayor of Tijuana in "Weeds") is in charge. They spend a lot of time introducing themselves to each other. You could fill a handbook with the back stories. Later a lot of the them will turn out to be false.

    The sense of danger and suspicion in a confined space is something Tarantino explored in Inglorious Basterds' risky basement card game, and the hiding under the floor theme also is essential to that film's drawn out opening dominated by Christolph Waltz. Skillful rearranging of point of view and chronology, which are key here, first appeared memorably in Pulp Fiction. And incidentally the foregrounding of an under appreciated or neglected actor (Waltz, Travolta, Grier et al.) happens here notably with "Sheriff" Chris Mannix, a role that will give Walton Goggins new stature. Newcomers to the QT stage but vets on screen are Bruce Dern as Confederate General Sandy Smithers and Jennifer Jason Leigh as unrepentant murderer Daisy Domergue, who is horribly abused throughout but never seems to mind, or be fazed. The stark authenticity of Dern's line readings contrasts with the tongue-in-cheek charm of Jackson, Goggins, or the fake-educated officiousness of Tim Roth as Oswaldo Mobray, an alleged traveling hangman. Daisy is to be hanged in Red Rock, and she's being delivered by John "The Hangman" Ruth (a very bewhiskered Kurt Russell), a bounty hunter who insists on delivering his captives alive -- a policy Major Marquis Warren (a typically splendid Samuel L. Jackson) strongly disagrees with. Marquis Warren begs admission onto the coach with several dead ones, saying "Bringing guilty men in alive is a good way to get yourself killed."

    For the fortunate, all this can be seen at theaters capable of so presenting it, in super-wide screen 2.76:1 ratio projected in 70 mm. as shot, on 65 mm. film using antique Panavision cameras, on film, and presented in "Roadshow" style with an Overture and an Intermission. The "Roadshow" version will be shown in many US cities and in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, Canada. Tarantino's respect for film tradition and film history and his mastery of the medium are things that set him apart from the rest.

    Of course, his relation to tradition is "problematic." His use of the N-word is more troublingly copious than in previous items in his oeuvre, even Django, which, being about slavery in the Deep South, was more clearly critical of white racism. It seems bizarre that while the ever-angry righteous, and conservative black film critic Armond White has published a diatribe against The Hateful Eight, on opening day in New York representatives of the Black Lives Matter movement stood in front of a theater in support of Tarantino's criticism of police. Perhaps the best one can say is that Tarantino is Tarantino.

    It is always enjoyable to watch and listen as his dialogue and his plot lines unfold. According to the "Roadshow" brochure, The Hateful Eight began as a staged reading at a Los Angeles theater by Tarantino "regulars" in April 2014 that was to be "a standalone event," and an "overwhelming response" led to its being committed to 70mm. It is theatrical in conception, and shows a baroque, decadent turn, if that is not redundant for an artist who's always had those qualities. The Agatha Christie-style structure leads Tarantino to grow verbally and visually expository in the latter segments -- arguably, to a fault. And did we really need so many N-words, so brutally delivered, or so much gore?

    The Hateful Eight, 168 mins., premiered in Los Angeles 7 Dec. 2015. Screened for this review in its 70mm. 187mins. version at New York City’s Village East cinema. Limited US release 25 Dec., further releases in Jan. 2016. Metacritic rating: 68%.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 03-20-2022 at 11:18 AM.

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    This is the first Tarantino film that I'm not stoked up to see. The trailer doesn't impress me in any way, shape or form.
    I appreciate the old-school format he chose. He used old cameras to do it. Your pic at the top of your review Chris is awesome.

    But what is this film? Why is it needed? In what way is this story interesting? I'll always be in his corner, but this one just seems like a notch on his filmography belt that didn't earn it's place, totally perfunctory. I'm mystified. I expect a lot from Quentin, like I did from Stanley Kubrick. And this seems way below his formidible talent.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

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    I don't know how any film experience could equal the excitement and fun I felt watching Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, and Pulp Fiction for the first time, and The Hateful Eightwas nowhere on that level. However, it was solid movie pleasure of a kind only QT could provide to watch The Hateful Eight in 70mm., listen to Ennio Morricone's new music, revel in the juicy dialogue, and enjoy the acting by the whole, well used cast.
    Tarantino has created another breathtakingly stylish and clever film, a Jacobean western, intimate yet somehow weirdly colossal, once again releasing his own kind of unwholesome crazy-funny-violent nitrous oxide into the cinema auditorium for us all to inhale.
    --Peter Bradshow, GUARDIAN.

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    Peter's quote makes me smile. Basterds was brilliant, Django was brilliant. There must be a dash of brilliance in The Hateful 8.
    I'll see it, of course. But when I don't get jacked up for a QT film then something is rotten in Denmark...:)
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

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    It's hard to get you to set foot in a cinema house these days for anything so reluctance re: Hateful Eis no huge surprise. See it though and in 70mm at a place with a big screen if you can. I do not think you will regret it.

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    Yes it's very hard to get me into a theatre these days, something that used to be impossible. The reality is there is almost nothing worth seeing, nothing earth-shaking. I'm always conscious of whether or not a film would be a waste of a ticket. And 95% of all movies aren't worth my money. Movies today are so contrived and so concerned with box office over Art. My money is precious. I don't collect crap, I don't spend a penny on anything unless it's worth it. Canada's dollar is 71 cents to yours. I'm pulling off a miracle with the movie I'm making. I'm making it for way less than Kevin Smith made Clerks. (And my film is no fuckin' Clerks).


    With each passing year I feel that cinema definitely died on March 7, 1999.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

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    Ennio Morricone did the score for this one- Awesome. Quentin must be over the moon to get him! (And it won a Golden Globe)

    Why does that trailer for The Hateful 8 suck? I mean cripes, there is nothing in that trailer (besides Samuel L. Jackson's flashy wardrobe) that indicates that this movie Rocks. I guess trailers for QT are moot? His name should get your ass into a theatre, right? lol
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

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    It's best not to watch trailers. So I'm not going to enter into this discussion. But I remember Kubrick and the SHINING one, and how P.T. Anderson carefully crafted his MAGNOLIA trailers. If QT is ignoring them, that's not ideal.

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    Yes, trailers shouldn't really have much weight placed on them.
    The Hateful 8 trailer is nothing more than "New Tarantino movie! Get it now! While it's Hot!". When by comparison, the trailer for KILL BILL (vol. 1) was a Masterpiece, a premium example of how to sell your movie, how to get butts into seats. I hesitate to say Quentin was slacking, because he is a Saviour of cinema, but his trailers should destroy all comers.
    When Zack Snyder is kicking your ass...you should adjust. "300" was a gigantic hit in part because the trailer was so fuckin' badass.

    I'll be seeing The Hateful 8 this weekend.
    The trailer for The Shining is Legendary, probably the best trailer ever made.
    That's a good topic for discussion: What is the best trailer you've ever seen? And why?
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

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    I know sometimes (Kubrick, PT Anderson, QT) trailers have been great, very rarely though. He must not have bothered this time. Too bad, but I respect those who prefer to enter a screening completely cold, not even really knowing what a film is about, exactly, in order to provide an unbiased assessment. I don't achieve that often or even seek to, but I value the purity of the idea.

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    Trailers used to be relatively cool or at least restrained way back, in the Fifties or Sixties or maybe Seventies, when they didn't provide a resume of the entire film. Less is more in this category. The one I think of is Kubrick's for THE SHINING showing only the elevator filling with blood.

    http://www.theawl.com/2010/08/is-the...he-actual-film

    When I looked this up I found another trailer that, horribly, summarizes the entire plot and ruins it. I don't recall that one actually being used, however. I do remember seeing the elevator/blood one.

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    Right on.
    Knowing nothing going in can be a revelation- I've experienced that many times. When I said 95% of the movies out there aren't worth my time, what I'm referring to is Kubrick's mantra: "In a way, everything has already been done in cinema. Our job is to do it BETTER", and no one is doing it better.

    Case in point: Steven Spielberg. That man knows how to make a movie on Kubrick's level (and has all the tools at his disposal to do it) and he refuses. He continues to make "audience" movies. He was an auteur in the 70's, with Friedkin, Coppola & even Lucas- auteur of blockbusters. I think he's lost his "auteur" status, and lost it when he made "Hook". Many may disagree, but that's what I feel.

    Lincoln was well-made- I really liked it. But how cinematic was it? Not much. War Horse- same thing. Bridge of Spies- who gives a shit? Spielberg is frustrating. He towers in Hollywood, but a director like Roman Polanski or Werner Herzog leave him in the dust. There's no "ecstatic truth" to be seen in any recent Spielberg pictures. He can do what he wants, he's earned it, but if I miss a Spielberg I lose ZERO SLEEP.
    Last edited by Johann; 01-13-2016 at 12:28 PM.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

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    I read in a book on Kubrick that directors like Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola venerate Kubrick because of one thing:
    Kubrick's films are RISKIER.

    George Lucas said he hoped to one day have the fortitude to do what Stanley did. You've had it since you were a multi-millionaire George! Stanley himself said he wished he could make the kind of money Star Wars did while maintaining his reputation for social responsibility. Did you hear that George? You got 4 billion bucks. Why the flying fuck aren't you working on something so Massively Awesome that it destroys all films that ever came before it?

    YOU HAVE THE POWER.....
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

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    This is true and you are right, and this is why you should be out watching the new ones and reporting on them and acting as a conscience.

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    Here is the MAGNOLIA trailer I think P.T. Anderson carefully crafted himself, which I remember from the time as seeming to show you everything but really showing you nothing, teasing you, exciting you, and suggesting something very cool was on the way.

    And here is the short one:
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 01-13-2016 at 03:49 PM.

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